parsvspasstTell them apart

Which to use

“pars” and “passt” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,639
“pars” frequency rank
#838
“passt” frequency rank
48477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pars passt
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs parsen 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs passen

Where the eye mixes pars and passt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pars runs 4 letters (CVCC) against passt's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pars
5 ch
passt

Visual trap between pars and passt

A purely visual mix-up. pars ([paʁs]) and passt ([past]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pars is recorded at frequency rank #47,639, classified as averb, pronounced [paʁs]. passt is at rank #838, tagged as averb, pronounced [past].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 48477, this pair ranks #1,247,181 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pars vs passt

Shared letters: aps. Private to "pars": r. Private to "passt": t.

"pars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "passt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pars ← aprs · parrs · parss · pasr · ppars · pras
  • passt ← apsst · passtt · pasts · paßt · ppasst · psast

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pars" for "passt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([paʁs] versus [past]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pars" vs "passt" - which ranks higher?
"passt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #838 in our German list, against #47,639 for "pars". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "pars" and "passt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "passt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,247,181 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pars" and "passt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pars vs PMS". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,247,181 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list